Little Improvements – A Stair for Kretzulescu

This project is a pilot for introducing an element that articulates three public spaces used by different social and age categories: the Kretzulescu Galleries, the Kretzulescu Church and the church’s park. The stair is more than an accessibility point: it acts as landmark, meeting point, resting area, waiting, reading and book launch space, a place for choir festivities or wedding pictures. The stair not only reconnects spaces that historically belonged together, and reactivates the commercial galleries, but also allows for a moment of stasis while linking flows of different speeds. The stair marks the transition from one situation to another, thus becoming a manifesto for what we believe is missing in the use and perception of Bucharest’s public space: a halting moment. Moreover, by means of materials and messages used, the stair ennobles a patrimonial corner that has suffered multiple weatherings and missed interventions. Mending the alterations in its physical integrity and offering the ensemble present day significance is also a way of critically distancing our project from the existing improvisations. Finally, integrating the galleries, the church and the park extends the impact area of the ongoing cultural rehabilitation process of the adjacent Victoriei Avenue, Royal Palace Museum and Revolution Square.

The project is financed by Porsche Romania and Fundația Comunitară București, through the Mobilizăm Excelența programme.